


Team Lads

by OtterQueen



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Camping, M/M, Some Mavin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-16
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-15 04:06:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/845118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OtterQueen/pseuds/OtterQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Geoff thinks it's finally time to take the lads out of the office to show them just how fun having a short break in the outdoors really is; but what the boys didn't plan for was the unexpected drop off into god knows where for three whole days of tough, boring camping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Let's all go camping

**Author's Note:**

> Oh wow okay, so this is my very first fanfiction for this fandom and my very first fic to be posted on here. I do plan on adding more chapters to this but I can't guarantee when they rest will be posted. I am sort of nervous with putting this up but hopefully I'll get the hang of this site and become more confident with writing out the next chapters if anyone finds this piece interesting enough to carry one. =w= The other chapters will be longer than the first since this one is just a little starting point for the fic, but I hope I met the standards to at least some of yous with this!!

At least the rain had stopped now. Michael watched as the few remaining droplets of water slid calmly down his side of the window. He wasn’t sure how much longer they would be traveling for, as he still wasn’t so sure on where exactly they were going. All that he knew, as much as the two lads he was going to be camping with, excluding Geoff’s knowledge, was that the four were taking a few day break from their usual time table of work to go kick back at some likely shitty ass camping site. Gavin was still yapping on at Geoff over a map in his hands as he was still trying to take guesses at their final point, and with a turn of Michael’s head to rest his gaze on the other who was sitting next to him in the back, he confirmed that Ray was still doing god knows what on his phone. 

“Hey Ray, how long have we been traveling for now?” he muttered to his friend, ignoring the still whining of the Brit. He watched as Ray closed whatever he was looking at to check the time on the device.  
“Erm, about two and a half hours now,” was the youngest ones response before his mind was set back to mindless tapping. Sadly for the driver, Gavin seemed to have heard that mention and started raising his voice again. Michael could only go back to his viewing. 

Everyone’s awaiting question was finally answered when the vehicle made a slow turn into a dampened field site. The bumps the car suffered from the movements across the beaten earth startled at least Ray to quickly turn his phone off and hide it away in his pocket as he curiously stretched his neck slightly to try and peek over Gavin to try get a better view of the place. Thankfully Gavin had stopped his peeping and finally put that damned map away in the glove compartment to the car. The car pulled up rather suddenly on that field as Geoff and the others unstrapped themselves before the openings of doors and clatter of the halting engine sounded throughout the calm field. They made themselves out to bother, each tugging the few smaller bags in the front and the back to the car out and hauling them onto the slightly muddied grass cover. They all pitched in to collect up the more heavier luggage out of the boot of the car and anything else they took with them before slamming it shut once again before the oldest reopened his driver seat door.

“Sorry guys, but looks like this is a drop off. See you assholes in three days time,” Geoff smirked as he hopped back in and restarted the engine, closing his door shut as he made a quick move to turn and drive back down the direction they had arrived from, ignoring the confused and startled calls had received from that dick move as he left the misted lawn. 

He really just did that. He really just left them on their own in the middle of god damn nowhere to try survive for those three odd days whilst he was most likely driving off to some five star amazing hotel to holiday in luxury. What a dick, Michael found himself muttering as he tried to busy his mind on something other than listening to the return of pissed off Gavin and his more annoying ranting. He turned to Ray, who he found muttering some unknown things to himself as he set his mind to pick up as many of the bags he could that they came here with. Michael then took it into hand to do the same, picking up most of the remaining bags, some being slung across his shoulder to provide more possible ways of carrying. 

“Gav, you okay to carry the rest of this shit?” he questioned, not surprised when all he got in return was more of Gavin’s anger which only made Michael raise an eyebrow in annoyance.  
“Why would he do such a thing like that, Michael? I should have frickin’ known he’d try something like that!” Gavin continued to fume, letting his anger out on one of his bags as he gave it a sharp kick, letting it flop sheepishly onto its other side. It took some encouragement for the man to finally comply and carry the remaining two or so, not heavy at all bags with him as he followed the others, still managing to grumble out some more half assed censored curse words. Michael could only assume his next task would be to try calm the betrayed man down. 

Sure enough, the moment they found a good piece of ground to camp upon and dump down their bags, Ray leaned over to Michael and muttered to him the well guessed request, which only got a groan and a ‘fine’ in response, followed with a somewhat small but relieved smile from the asker. After adjusting his slightly fogged glasses, Ray set to work with unravelling the bundle which they would soon call their tent for this trip. The other made his way over to the ticked Brit who seemed to be trying to pick up some sort of impossible reception on his phone. No doubt to try get in contact with the American who ditched them. A sigh escaped Michael’s lips as they parted to begin the talk with the other.  
“Gavin, you won’t get a signal from all the way out here you idiot,” Michael told him, watching as his friend flashed him a well known surprised gaze which was followed by an annoyed frown as he lower the phone from his ear, tapping off the dead call. The redhead smiled slightly at the first stage of calming went passed. “He won’t come back, even if you somehow managed to pick up a call with him. Now, could you do us both a favour and quit your moping and help out with the damn set up?” He did try to keep the smile on his face for as long as it would take for the taller to give in. 

“We’ll get him back for this next time, Michael. I swear we’ll get him back for this.” He started heading back to the busied man.  
“Sure Gavin, we’ll get him back after this.”


	2. Streams are a definite no

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray should never of had sent the two on his needed request. Especially with the likes of Gavin being forced to go with. In fact, he wasn't quite sure on if the Brit would had been better of staying with him or facing the experience he had done so with Michael.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm quite surprised how much attention this fic got already, thank you all so much for the comments and kudos'! As said I managed to finish off chapter two quite quicker than I hoped so I do hope others find it good enough to read on.~ I swear the chapters will get longer as they go through and that there'd be some more obvious Mavin moments later on. ;)

Ray lifted his head towards the two as they approached him.  
“Oh great, you finally got Gavin to quiet down,” he spoke up, his voice more brighter than last time as he turned to go back to hammering the nails into the ground through the hoops to the ends of the tent. As told, Gavin began to help unpack and sort through the tools along with his own bag of clothing they had brought with them, Michael was close behind him with the helping. It was only when Ray straightened up once satisfied with his work, that he turned and gave orders to the others. Clearly he was going to be the one in charge of this whole camping thing, not trusting Gavin one bit and deciding Michael would already have his hands full with the fella. “Looks like we’ll need to start a fire at some point tonight, it’d be easier to collect resources sooner whilst light rather than later…” he pointed out, letting that smile creep onto his face. “Would you two go ahead and collect some sticks and stones?”  
“And where the bloody hell are we going to get those at?” Gavin was quick to question, which only received a roll of the eyes from Michael as the man explained.  
“Did you not take time to look around properly, Gavin? There’s an obvious as fuck cluster of trees backing us up which hints at; yes we’re surrounded by a fucking forest you nitwit,” Michael went on. Honestly, it was almost painful sometimes knowing of how stupid the Brit could be once he was frustrated. 

The two were shooed away quite quickly once Gavin thought it a good idea to use his still very much alive irritation to snap at his words again for a response. The two didn’t share anymore words after the short argument whilst they sulked off towards the trees, both trying to settle their anger down once more. Finding the items Ray had requested seemed to be, at first easy shit. There was a good selection of dried stones scattered around trees and under leaves, along with acceptably sized swigs to start up a safe camp fire with. It was only when their resources started running low where they thought it best to do just a bit more exploring throughout the forest, seeing as the materials they had already gathered up had been mainly around the boarder to the quiet nature, close as possible to where they were staying at. It was at this time where their words started to call again. 

“Gavin you won’t find any sticks around that rock,” Michael told him, letting his tone hint at amusement slightly as Gavin’s stupidity started to become more funny than annoying to him since last. Gavin just turned his head to him and gave him a thoughtful grin. His words coming out eager and excited when he spoke.  
“But Michael, lookit what I just found,” and that was the only guidance his bud got before he took off down the leaf plated hill. Michael could only shout his name in annoyance of his sudden leave before running after him, almost slipping when he made his run down the slope. 

Michael felt the need to snatch at Gavin’s wrist when he found out what the man had discovered, just in time as well as he managed to harshly tug Gavin off of the first slippery rock.  
“We don’t know where the hell this leads to, Gavin,” Michael growled, not wanting to have the two getting themselves lost as shit on the other side. Gavin only let out a playful laugh, followed by a grin as he met his gaze.  
“That’s what makes it fun, Mikey,” he chuckled, slowly tugging his wrist free of Michael’s grasp which ended up doing no good as Michael only clung back on with more force.  
“We probably already have enough pathetic tree branches to take back now, Gav,” he tried to persuade him, yanking him back even more away from the water.  
“… Pathetic tree branches?” Gavin gave out a smirk. 

What he had found was a stream. A fucking wide, dangerous, slippery as fuck stream. And he was attempting to cross it. There were even more reasons why Michael thought of this as a bad idea. Yet he found the willing one tugging at his arm with his free hand next thing he noticed.  
“It won’t be too far from the camp, it’d be a real exciting adventure once we’re over there! What if we discovered a body or something there, what if – what if we found something amazing?” the string of un-thought of reasons just kept going till the older let out a frustrated sigh.  
“Gavin. If we cross this shit you’re probably gonna fucking screw up and make yourself fall in,” Michael prompted, making Gavin shake his head childishly.  
“Naw Michael, I’ll be careful. You can hold onto my hand if you really want.” For gods sake, it was as if Gavin was begging to go past this point like his bloody life depended on it. As though he had been trapped in some far off place some explorer stumbled upon and was now pleading him to show him back through the way he had came. But unfortunately – the Jersey boy gave in. 

And it was the most stupidest thing he would ever find himself doing on this ‘holiday’. 

It all started pretty well, Michael took his suggestion with great force as he guided Gavin across the pathway sticking up from the still flowing stream. Thankfully Gavin calmed himself down just enough to make himself at least somewhat stable to pass on through. It was only when they got more of less half way there when they hit the real slippery rocks, rocks in which Michael was not prepared to face. He almost slipped over himself, quickly regaining his balance as he made his steps even more lighter, making sure to give a quick word of warning to his follower to be extra careful around the ahead rocks. And when Michael took those few more rock steps, he found himself being forced into the iced cold tide. 

“Gavin what did I fucking say about being careful-!?” the shouts rang out as well as the crashing splash that followed it as the two sliced through untouched water. In a state of panic, Michael felt scrambling hands grip at his arm, making it harder for himself to stay above the surface as his companion thrashed about helplessly in the water, feeling the cold sting at his uncovered skin. He clung back, trying to find the Brit through the sharp movements and gargling shrieks, finding a hold of what felt like the fabric to his shirt. It was hard to keep the other steady as he attempted to haul himself back up to the surface of the water, finding that this was some pretty deep stream. Should have been known as a more shorter assed river. His main priority at first was to get the Brit up to breathe fresh air again as his legs half tangled with the others, giving him tighter holds in return to try secure the other a bit better. What was he doing. Eventually after about ten breathless seconds of them being under, he finally caught up with the rhythm of the water movements and Gavin’s struggling as he managed to successfully catch his breath again when he broke through the surface, Gavin in somewhat hold as he used his strength to haul the man onto the bank. He gasped as he pulled himself out too, Gavin still finding it hard to realise his air space and he coughed and spluttered on stream water. Michael flopped down beside him when he sat up, finding his shaken breaths.  
“I fucking told you so,” Michael wheezed out before coughing followed and when Gavin was aware enough to catch his words again. 

\--

“What took you two so long – and how the hell did you both manage to get drenched so fast?” Ray questioned, not sure whether to be amused at the sight of the two that returned or worried or even suspicious for what the two got up to. After the death risking experience by the stepping stones, the two boys thought it was the best of ideas to not for hells sake go back that way. Instead they had walked the whole way around the place trying to find a root to take back which wouldn’t involve so much water. It had taken them a total of two harsh hours to do so and apparently the water still hadn’t even slightly dried off of themselves. 

“Er, trouble at the lake,” Michael confessed, giving Gavin an almost threatening glare, which made the man jump aside slightly in forgiveness. Ray frowned. 

“Did you bring back any of the stuff I asked from you both?” 

Gavin bit his lip slightly at the question, looking down shamefully to try avoid eye contact with either of them.  
“Lost ‘em in the water,” Michael announced, which only made the man next to him worry even more at what punishment they might receive. Ray only sighed at their report, turning to something he was still busying himself with. He laughed.  
“Thought you may say something like that,” he grinned, taking something out of his the pocket to his coat he bundled himself into when the air was getting too cold for regular, short sleeved shirts. “Heard your screams from all the way out here some time ago.” He swiped a match alit before throwing it into the pile of ever so slight oil soaked swigs. 

“Wait,” Michael started. “You mean to say we went through all that bother – all that cocksucking, death risking exploration, to come all the fucking way back, expecting some sort of heroic return from all the absolute shit we had to go through in finding this place again, to find that Mr. Smartass over here has already made the god damn fire already?!” his tone harshly raised as anger took over and the return of pissed off, rage quit Michael from the office found himself in the midst. 

Ray continued chuckling, filling a tin of vegetable soup into one of the two frying pans they brought to set over the fire to cook.  
“Well yeah, if you wanna look at it like that,” he cocked his head when he looked back at the others. 

The two adventures threw their soaked clothes off once they had made it back into their tent, this time both muttering on about the ordeal as they tried their best to dry themselves off with their towels, the conversation however quickly turning into Michael having a go at Gavin for fucking up as he always did even when the lad has given him easy to take note of warnings otherwise. They would have almost gotten into a fight with eachother if it weren’t for Ray popping in, telling them that Dinner was ready and teasing them by saying ‘If you keep that up you may just as well attract a bear’. Even with Michael being still annoyed with both the others, it wasn’t long before they found themselves talking together once more and laying down teasing and playful jokes about the whole thing, along with other stuff like how the others are dealing with them being away and everyday talk. 

Michael was thankful that he didn’t blurt out the question on why Ray decided on lighting the fire so early when it came to the time the three headed off to their sleeping bags. The fire had been stomped out with no trouble thanks to how long the thing had been burning for and the lads found themselves still sharing words even when it came to sleep. Phones were taken out for the first few half hours for playing games when they gave in with trying to set up some sort of internet connection, experiences were told from other death risking moments when the stream incident came up again. And in final half assed goodnights were passed on when the guys finally decided at, almost half two according to Gavin, to get some well-deserved sleep for the next two full days to come.

Somehow they had survived their first – or more, half of – day in the wilderness. And during those hours the Brit and the Jersey had already almost gotten themselves killed or set into possible almost permanent health risking disorders. So the question at hand here is almost set into all their minds. How the hell are they going to survive these next days?


	3. Game night and campefires

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lads first proper day camping kicks with some good all fashioned fishing, followed by a bit of fun in the woods and an unexpected surprise around the campfire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man I haven't updated this fic in so long, sorry about that!! I've actually had the most of this chapter written up for a long time now and only got the motivation to write the ending part out last night. ;; So don't worry guys this fiction isn't dead yet and I do plan on letting it continue for at least a few more chapters, also I'll be hopefully writing some more stuff after this is done as I have so many ideas to have to put into words. c:

Gavin was greeted with a rude morning awakening the next day as something stiff and unrecognisable slapped him out of sleep. He get a short, tired grumble as he opened up his eyes, sitting up sharply as he stared, half asleep still at the man, chackling in front of him. He looked down at the blurred fishing rod on his lap.   
“Rise and shine sleeping Gavvy,” Michael teased, nudging his leg only fairly harshly with his boot. “You slept the whole way through breakfast man, get yourself up and dressed then we gotta head off.”   
Gavin could only stare up at him for a few moments more before bringing a hand up to rub at his tired eyes, replying with a simple yawn and a morning stretch of the arms. He nodded, pushing the rod aside before slipping out of his sleeping bag. The other boy watched him for a few moments, making sure the lad was actually taking note of his orders, not noticing the sweet smile that stuck to his face. “Oh yeah,” he found himself speaking up again. “Ray already left, said he didn’t wanna wait so long for you to get yourself ready.” He shrugged off his last words, only letting them continue again once Gavin gave him an honest reply.  
“Wow wow wait, are we going fishing, Michael?” he sheepishly asked. Michael’s smile only grew as he smirked.   
“Yeah you dumb fuck, wasn’t that already obvious?” he gestured towards the perfectly good rod Gavin had nudged aside when he had gotten himself up before turning and exiting the tent, leaving the man to get changed in private. Not that Gavin ever minded getting himself changed in front of his friend. 

It took Gavin a series of censored cursing along with the five odd minutes of fumbling time to get himself sorted, with the apparent amount of effort it took him to tug on his day clothes being still newly woken up. His words only made Michael laugh more when he finally realised he had slept through the chance to get food as the pair explored their way through the woodland area to find the place Ray had thought of to fish at. It was more of Michael teasing and tugging Gavin along to show him the way but they both managed to make themselves there in the end. 

The dark haired man already had his equipment set up when he turned his head to greet the boys, giving them a polite wave as he turned his attention back to his fishing. He mustn’t of had been fishing for so long, Gavin thought, being as he hadn’t caught anything yet and the bait was still all fresh and in order. Michael began with parking himself next to the fisher, setting down his bait box along with his equipment.   
“Hey Gav, mind helping me set up this shit?” Gavin smiled his agreement, shifting his spot to crouching down beside his team mate. The two made themselves busy for the upcoming few minutes, making sure the rods were set up in the right places and bait set to the ends before the lines were casted. Thankfully Michael had made the Brit slip back into their tent to collect up his own fishing equipment when he came out with none, soon enough they all had their own sitting spot to fish from as they shared words, questions and answers being passed over throughout the half hour before Ray’s line started to tug. Ray let out an excited cheer as he jumped to his standing position, reeling in his line. The two others watched him with eager eyes as the catch was made. 

Hours passed by till the boys were eventually satisfied with their collected amount. Ray had managed to catch two medium sized trout fish, where as Michael was proud with his catch of a large mouth bass and a couple of smaller trout fish. Unsurprisingly, Gavin caught near nothing. Not that Michael’s interferences helped at the times where he did actually have a bite. He ended up settling with some sort of tiny, fresh water perch that Michael practically burst out into laughter when he ended up reeling it in. But at least the man caught something at the end of the day. 

The head back to their camp site was interrupted when Gavin slipped away into the trees, snickering to himself when only Ray bothered to notice he had gone. He didn’t question what Gavin was up to and because of so didn’t think it necessary to point it out to Michael who hadn’t noticed yet of the Brit’s escape. Only moments before Ray was about to alert Michael of the others run off, the missing suddenly jumped out from behind a tree ahead of them, with curved sticks in his grasp as he shouted out to the two to; ‘Put your bloody hands up in the air, this is a raid!’ . Ray was only half surprised by the ‘threat’ as the unexpected Michael found himself jumping back in shock from the simple jump scare. He gritted his teeth, cursing to himself as Gavin laughed at his reaction. 

“Gavin you fucking idiot,” Michael growled as he straightened himself up again, glancing around for a moment. “Since when did you leave, you could have got yourself shit lost again like yesterday!” Gavin could only keep up his laughter at Michael’s words, which only left Ray to step in to answer the question for him.   
“A few minutes ago, I was about to tell you he had left when he didn’t come back,” Ray told the other, trying his best not to snicker in time with Gavin from the rather humorous reaction. Michael let out a heavy sigh before drawing his attention to the wood in Gavin’s hands.   
“What the fuck Gavin – that’s another thing, why the hell are you holding those pieces of shit?” this time, Ray couldn’t answer for him. The holder chuckled at his findings before going on to explain. 

“So there’s this massive hoard of sticks in the woods, right?” he told them as if the information was not already obvious. “And so, I noticed before that some of them were shaped a bit differently, like, they had this sort of handle to them you see, and I thought that kinda resembled a gun.”   
Michael stared down his friend before looking back at the props.   
“And you were stupid enough to try scare us with those? Pretending you were some kind of mass murderer who had just gotten his hidey hole found out of?” he carried on with the asks, folding his arms as he waited his response.   
“It worked though, didn’t it?” Gavin chuckled, referring to the jump scare reaction before, which only made the Jersey boy scowl. He shoved his way past Gavin, probably muttering some kind of insult to him which the bloke couldn’t quite make out. 

The fire was started again and the bowls were brought back out when lunch was finally underway. Teasing had went down on the second half to the way back that only followed with harsh words being said and the occasional almost wrestle. After the successful lunch of fish and tinned beans, with added amusement brought by Michael, (who, once had finished off his duties of gutting the meal, decided it was a good idea to chase Gavin around with the left over carcass, almost making the lad throw up) the boys found themselves with more or less, nothing else to do. It was only when Gavin brought up the reminder and the idea of heading back to the woods to play out a ‘real life shoot off’, which Michael thought to be a ridiculous idea at start but ended up being dragged into it by both Ray as well as Gavin anyway. 

“So will this be in teams or all against all?” Michael questioned when they finally found a decent spot to start off their little game. Gavin hesitated for a moment to think. It wouldn’t be fair if they had teams, since one of them would be left on their own to be ganged up upon. But then again being in teams was something they were all so used to. It was Ray though that came up with the answer.   
“We could do swaps, all out to shoot down the rest for the first round, then the first who got shot is the one to be teamless next round?” that was something the three could agree to. 

It didn’t take long for them to each find a stick that resembled a gun is some ways, Gavin though settling for two, smaller sticks that were apparent pistols and Ray having a separate, pointer stick that worked as a playable knife. The rules were clear enough; if you got ‘shot’ or ‘stabbed’ you were out, and by added rules you weren’t allowed to stray too far from the area for several reasons involving the getting of lost again and by simple fairness. They didn’t want to be searching all over the place to find someone who may or may not be out there too far already. 

First off, they all split up to find a tree or large enough rock of ditch to hide behind. Since they didn’t have the use of anything to actually throw at their targets, they just settled with the fact of fake gun noises. This was no doubt going to end up in an argument but then again it was something to do to pass the time. 

Ray had found himself a ditch to hide in, peeking over the tops of it in search of either of the two to take out first. Gavin sat with his back against a large oak tree, occasionally glancing around the sides in case any came into his sight before darting across to hide behind a closer tree. Michael had managed to find himself a more covered up tree. With no one taking sight of the area he was in he had made himself climb up the bark to perch himself on the stable enough branches, spying on the view to try catch someone out. 

Gavin was the first to go. Ray had managed to spot him making his way through the trees in search of a target and an add decent place to call hide, and being Ray he thought it clever enough to crawl his way out from his ditch and sneak up on the other from behind, amusement finding host to him as he crouched right behind the Brit. With a swing of the arm around the others throat, the practically blunt tip of stick slid across the target’s throat, which make Gavin let out a high pitched squeal, with an added jolt and kick of the legs when Ray pulled him backwards. Ray whispered a ‘you’re out’ into his ear before releasing the half snickering man and scurrying off to hide and wait for Michael to arrive. 

Ray rained victorious when he delivered the first gun fired of the two when both he and Michael stood their ground in the opening to the kill. Teams were now on when Gavin was helped up and left on his own once more to find another hiding spot as Ray and Michael had their ways back into the more tree-covered parts. They exchanged quiet hiding plans and tactics, one hiding away as the other paced through the area in search of intruders. This time Michael was the first to be shot as Gavin bypassed Ray’s guarding skills and went right to the source of their little war side. After hearing his team mates shouts of defeat and cackling, Ray however came running to knock Gavin out of the round once more and yet again took the title. 

Out of luck when the next round came, Ray was the first to be taken down and team Nice Dynamite was reassembled like times at the office. It played through like it should have. Gavin fucked up, gave away their hiding place, and they both got obliterated by the foe. 

After realising how long they had likely spent messing about in the woods, they finally took note of how dark the sky was getting and the sudden remembrance that the fire was still a lit brought them back to the camp. They gave thanks to Ray for creating the stone barrier to the camp fire, the only thing that kept it from possible burning of the site. It was for that reason that they decided to gather around the campfire after settling themselves down for the overcoming night, toasting marshmallows over the flames.

“Right I think that’s about it for the night,” Ray finally spoke after a long while of comfortable silence from when they had cut the sharing of words to simple enjoy the star scattered sky. He laid the iron rod aside that he had been using and stood up, drawing the attention of the two sitting across from him. “So I want one of yous to keep watch over the fire till it goes weak enough to stamp out, I wouldn’t trust it to keep going all night, we were pretty lucky before with it.” 

“Oh that’s fine, it’s not as if I was planning on getting any rest anyway tonight. Yeah Ray, I’ll babysit Gav for you over the night,” Michael chuckled in reply, bringing his arms up over his head to stretch them. Gavin just gave him a childish look after the reply was made, leaving Ray amused enough to let out a wary snort. He gave the oldest a ‘good luck’ before slipping into the shadowed over tent and getting ready to sleep for the night. Gavin and Michael were the only two left around the fire at this point, huddled together under a spare blanket they brought in case the weather dropped on their camp out. 

“What time are you going to bed at, Michael?” Gavin asked after a short time of silence, only being broke by soft crackling off of the fire. The other shrugged, tired eyes fixed on the orange glow. 

“Well,” he started off, giving his words a light laughter as he smiled and turned his gaze onto his friend. “That all depends when you decide to black out, dude. I’m not going to be letting you stay up on your own with this fire. God fucking knows what you’ll burn down with it.” A light headbutt was his response, and Michael could only laugh and smile even more at that. Tired Gavin was probably the best state for the boy to be in, in his opinion. The failure to accomplish most things just seemed that even more cute when the guy was drowsy and being sheepish with his moves and words. 

“Ha, I don’t know, probably won’t stay up much longer,” Gavin muttered, reaching to take out another marshmallow from the crinkled plastic bag beside them. He pierced the sweet onto the tip of the rod and drew it out over the flames, watching as it caramelised over and waiting for Michael’s words to be drawn out again. 

“Hm, well give me some damn hint or something when you’re about to head off so I know when to put that damn bag away. I don’t want to be hearing that crackle once every few minutes for however long I’m going to have to stay out for,” Gavin smiled at him, yawning after moments of added silence before taking his rod out again and bringing his lips to press around the sweet. Not even a moment had passed before the rod came clattering against the stones to the ground. 

“Ow! Bollocks that’s hot!” Yelled Gavin as hands came to clamp over his burnt lips, encouraging a burst of laughter from Michael. Gavin whimpered as he shot Michael a tormented stare. 

“Oh man oh man- did you burn your lips on that thing? Holy shit Gavin you got to be more careful with hot stuff!” the Jersey laughed, patting his back but only being greeted with sudden shuffle away that drew his hand back to him. Maybe he shouldn’t of had laughed so hard there. Still snickering, he managed to speak out some sort of apology after receiving only silence from the other after that move. “Oh god, sorry man, it’s just so fucking hilarious. Hah,” he edged closer. “Hey are you going to be alright?” 

He was trying his best to calm himself down from the laughter as he wrapped an arm around the still figure to pull him back into a huddle. Gavin seemed as though he was also trying his best in getting away from the one who had laughed at him but of course failing pretty badly in that from his lack of strength to move away anymore. Well, that and Michael’s hold was pretty damn tough to break away from. 

“Oh sod it Michael, it was funny at all, it god damn hurt!” he forced himself to tell him as he drew his hands away from his stinging lips, holding but then breaking away from the gaze he didn’t even knew Michael was giving him. 

He bit the inside of his mouth as he allowed his grin to slowly drop, loosening his hold slightly as his eyes stayed on Gavin. Alright, so maybe that wasn’t… really that funny after all. Well, the guy did kind of get himself hurt out of his stupidity, but perhaps this wasn’t the time to get him all pissy. They were on holiday after all and Michael for one sure didn’t want a fall out to happen. He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment to think over what he was about to make himself do before reopening them to find that Gavin was still not facing him. 

“Gav,” Michael kept his words steady as Gavin mumbled to him a ‘what?’. Before the man had time to turn his head to face the other, if he was planning to that is, Michael had already moved his free hand to tilt the other’s face to meet his, which followed quickly by gentle lips being pressed lightly against sore ones. Michael didn’t find himself pulling away until a good solid five seconds afterwards, which felt like minutes to him. He was waiting for Gavin to slap him away or pull back straight after contact but he didn’t, which was something he hadn’t quite planned for. He also hadn’t planned for Gavin to look so flustered and surprised when he got a look at his face after the touch. Well at least that changed his mood, at least he succeeded in his task to calm the Gavin down. 

Oh man now he felt awkward. 

He managed to hide away that part of his feelings pretty well though at this time as he gave a light smile in reaction to his reply. Gavin only stared at him with wide eyes and a slightly opened mouth. Wide, beautiful, surprised eyes. 

He thought it best to break this tension as soon as he got the chance. 

“You should probably go get some sleep now, you need it more than I do,” Michael persuaded as he drifted his gaze over to the tent in a means of pointing before turning it back to Gavin’s reddened face. He only smiled even further when the awkwardness lifted slightly once Gavin was reduced to a blubbering, flustered mess as he tried to agree or protest back against Michael. Really, he really wasn’t quite sure if Gavin was trying to agree or disagree with him right now, it was fairly hard to tell at this point, but at least Gavin didn’t… seem awkwardly uncomfortable or mad at him for what he had just did. 

“A-alright Michael,” he finally uttered out, turning his stare to the fire for a brief moment before trying to somewhat smile back at him, and, oh dang, how flushed could this man even get? The American chuckled as he gave a pat to him on the back before allowing him to unsteadily get to his feet and stumble over to the tent, half from being sat down for so long and half still from the surprise. Even so, he managed to call back a sort of steady goodnight and a smile to Michael before disappearing into the nest, which gave the added confidence to the other that things were going to be cool with him and Gavin for now and which also gave way with the now extra ideas to try a flirtatious stunt like that again during this free time away from the rest. 

He kept to his word though as he watched over the fire, making sure to finally put away that damn pack of marshmallows so the sound wouldn’t bother him later on. At some point, far late on in the night, the flames had died down enough to be taken out at last. After waiting for a few extra minutes to ensure he wasn’t going to catch fire from this in the case of the flames suddenly growing big again, he at last got himself up and stomped the remains out, far too tired to take bother to the sudden darkness that occurred from doing that. He stretched for a good few moments before tiredly making his own eventful way into the tent with the others, picking up from the both quiet and stillness of the place that the other two were very most likely asleep. Heh yeah, that and the light snoring coming from one of them, probably Gavin. He didn’t even bother to draw his sleeping bag open to make himself slip comfortably into, nah, he was way too tired for that shit as he practically collapsed onto the thing, shutting his stinging, tired eyes even before the impact as he found himself into a quick, tiresome sleep. He would be greeted with probable questions from Ray and Gavin the morning, right now, he only wanted to sleep this long, relieved night off till his next awakening came in the soon to be morning.


End file.
